What was the Holocaust?

The Holocaust (1938 - 1945) was the mass murder of six million Jews, and other misfits during World War ll. This movement was largely led by Hitler and the Nazis, and took place in Europe and other Nazi-occupied countries. Foreign countries chose to appease the Nazis by rounding up all of the Jewish populations and sending them abroad to the Nazis. Besides the cooperation of other countries,the Germans created laws, such as the Nuremberg laws, which would remove German citizenship from Jews. The elimination of German citizenship would allow the German government to prosecute Jews freely as part of their government policy.

The Holocaust was the result of Hitler's desire for a perfect Aryan race, and his support of anti-semitism. His burning passion to annihilate the Jews from the face of the Earth led him to create specialized killing units, extermination camps, and concentration camps.From 1941-1943 Hitler used mobile death squads such as the Einsatzgruppen to kill their victims on the spot. This method was not fast enough for Hitler which led him to create concentration and extermination camps.Concentration camps were used from 1933 - 1945, but were not designed to kill people. In the camps, inmates were worked to death, tortured, and starved. Most of the prisoners died from exhaustion, but if they managed to live, they would be worked until they were worthless. Once they were too old or too weak to work, the Nazis sent them to extermination camps where they would be gasses in the gas chambers. After the victims were gases, their bodies would be burnt in the crematoria. The bodies were burned as to eliminate any evidence that would suggest that the Holocaust really happened.

These are a concentration camp's sleeping arrangement. It also shows how skinny people got as a result of malnutrition.

A brief overview ranging from the time spent in the ghettos to the tours citizens were forced to take once the camps were liberated.